No Regrets
FVHE fall of the Mollet Government, due to the I adverse vote of a considerable section of the Right against the advice of their leaders, will hardly be Much regretted. In spite of its good European record and its other achievement of the setting up of local governments with a degree of autonomy in French • West, and Equatorial, Africa and Madagascar, its past history was dubious in many respects. More than any other government it had used the considerable re- sources of the French State to suppress criticism, exerting pressure on the newspapers to an extent which constituted a real threat to freedom of the press. Its policy in Algeria was rigid to the point of brutality, and its tactics in face of objec- tions to the methods used evasive and discredit- able. No doubt this was in part responsible for its fall. The Independents who voted against it were motivated by local economic considerations, by dislike of jobs for M. Mollet's fellow- Socialists, but also by disquiet over the Algerian problem. Every Frenchman must now ask him- self, 'Is it to go on like this for ever?' The next Prime Minister seems likely to be drawn from one of the small groups : the name of M. Mitterand, who has the advantage of being more on the Left than some others, has been men- tioned. Anyone who heads a government will have considerable problems to solve, and matters will not be made easier for him by the fact that, without a Socialist Prime Minister, discontent Within the Socialist Party and the Socialist trade unions will be unleashed. The latter, in particular, are almost certain to produce wage claims which will aggravate the already rocky financial position of the country. In these circumstances any new Prime Minister will have to tackle Algeria. He Will have more freedom of action than his pre- decessor, committed by previous policies and by Suez; and the lines on which a solution might be sought have been laid down by M. Mitterand in an important speech to his party last Monday. He said that the employment of force only has sense if it tends to restore the passibility of ar- bitration . Whoever succeeds M. Mollet, these words should be remembered, and any further incident such as last Friday's indiscriminate killing of Moslems in Algiers by French parachutists avoided. '
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